At this stage, the teams no longer need personalized coaching. What they need is breathing room. A separation from the immediacy of frenetic impacts. Good coaches many times take an opposite approach from the main direction. Notice that Spoelstra, in the closing moments, stressed the ultimate backdrop was a channeling of concentration (there was no chart): remain calm and dig in.

I think Pop out-thunk himself a little down the stretch in Game 6. You can do all the offense-for-defense situational switching you want, but crunch time in an NBA Finals closeout game, perhaps you're better off keeping your best 5 players on the floor (i.e., Duncan, Parker, etc.).

Senior Citizen Duncan and Young Gun Moose may have very similar numbers, but you swap Duncan with Moose on the current Spurs team and Miami would sweep the Finals (assuming Spurs would even get past the Grizzlies). Duncan's resolve and concentration in these games is amazing to watch. Moose would be spending half the game screaming "and-one" to the refs.

Also, Moose has a career DRtg of 105 vs Duncan's 95. They are virtually tied for career ORtg at 110. So, even if he can sustain what he's doing now for the rest of his career, all we can say is Monroe can score as well as Duncan even though they're worlds apart on defense. That being said, being able to match Duncan's output even on one side of the court is still quite a feat.

Took the Spurs 6 years to get back to the Finals. After 3 years Dumars broke up our team. Wonder If Dumas was in charge of San would he have fired Pop and traded Parker in 2010? Is it just a matter of believing in your guys and sticking with them? Of course the Spurs still have not won a title since 2007.

Took the Spurs 6 years to get back to the Finals. After 3 years Dumars broke up our team. Wonder If Dumas was in charge of San would he have fired Pop and traded Parker in 2010? Is it just a matter of believing in your guys and sticking with them? Of course the Spurs still have not won a title since 2007.

Click to expand...

The fading GTW teams with Flip were consistent in how they fell short in the playoffs. Teams that showed hard on the high pick and roll forced Billups either to give up the ball or pull back and reset wasting valuable time. It became apparent that the whole show ran on Billups' considerable PG skills. Take the ball out of his hands and the timing was off. Rip would have to create instead of catch and shoot. Things stalled on the offensive end but pre-flip, there was the Ben Wallace anchored D to create turnovers or running opportunities. As teams got more second chance points and as we relied more an more on execution and jump shooting to win, our playoff runs became predictable.

The Spurs fell short to injury or to some really good teams. We struggled with Milwaukee and a not-yet-ready-for-prime-time, Lebron led Cavs. Duncan will go down as the best power forward of all time.
Its apples and oranges.

Joe Dumars' biggest failure as a GM isn't Darko, Gordon or Villanueva, its the lack of consistency in the organization. You can't trade a promising guard for a pick like Kawhi Leonard unless you know who you are and where you are going. The team as a whole is still in limbo. Are we 90's retro night? A young team? A business to flip once it turns a profit?

The fading GTW teams with Flip were consistent in how they fell short in the playoffs. Teams that showed hard on the high pick and roll forced Billups either to give up the ball or pull back and reset wasting valuable time. It became apparent that the whole show ran on Billups' considerable PG skills. Take the ball out of his hands and the timing was off. Rip would have to create instead of catch and shoot. Things stalled on the offensive end but pre-flip, there was the Ben Wallace anchored D to create turnovers or running opportunities. As teams got more second chance points and as we relied more an more on execution and jump shooting to win, our playoff runs became predictable.

The Spurs fell short to injury or to some really good teams. We struggled with Milwaukee and a not-yet-ready-for-prime-time, Lebron led Cavs. Duncan will go down as the best power forward of all time.
Its apples and oranges.

Joe Dumars' biggest failure as a GM isn't Darko, Gordon or Villanueva, its the lack of consistency in the organization. You can't trade a promising guard for a pick like Kawhi Leonard unless you know who you are and where you are going. The team as a whole is still in limbo. Are we 90's retro night? A young team? A business to flip once it turns a profit?

But the Spurs have won two, the Lakers two and the Heat three since the Pistons won their last title in 2004.

We were the team that was built to win multiple titles and most of us thought we would get or deserved another up until the time Flip left. We were basically a one and done organization that could not get the one extra player to get us over the hump....Dice or CWebb were not enough and Flipper didn't have it........

I disagree that we were a one-and-done. We were one quarter short of repeating.

Click to expand...

We were one point away from completing the back to back to back in 88, 89 and 90..... In 1988, the Pistons were up 3 games to 2 and led the Lakers 81-79 at the end of three in game 6. It appeared that we had this game, as Zeke who injured his ankle was still putting a show scoring 25 pts in the third quarter. (he finished with 43). The Pistons lost the game on a phanthom call on Laimbeer that allowed Abdul-Jabbar to hit two free throws and win the game 103-102 to force a game 7. Despite Zekes gallant effort, we got nothing from Dantley and Laimbeer that night.

The Pistons led by 4 with 14 seconds left and I think the jello jiggling and the Champagne was chilling...but just like Tuesday night ...a victory was snatched from the upstart Pistons and in the end there was no ring that year. I was there for game six, but refused to go to what I expected to a laker win in game 7, (it was) so I sent Mrs. Dre to accompany her her mother, a life long Laker season ticket holder...

But the Spurs have won two, the Lakers two and the Heat three since the Pistons won their last title in 2004.

We were the team that was built to win multiple titles and most of us thought we would get or deserved another up until the time Flip left. We were basically a one and done organization that could not get the one extra player to get us over the hump....Dice or CWebb were not enough and Flipper didn't have it........

Click to expand...

Another way to look at it is the Pistons are 1 of only 6 teams to win a championship in the last 15 years. The other 24 NBA teams have ZERO championships combined over the past 15 years.

I watched game seven with my best basketball resources - head coaches of the men's and women's bball teams at my old high school - and broached this subject. Both loved the idea of the current spurs being a model for our future.

Some of this might be repetitive, but the ideas are a little more refined now..

#1) Andre Drummond down low - on Offense and Defense - is far better than anything the Spurs have. Or have had since David Robinson. He's the defensive intimidator - and he's only going to get better. He's almost 7-feet tall. Athletic as all hell. A great shot blocker. A big, wide, strong body who clogs the paint. Quickness to move across the lane. Potential to be a dominant rebounder. On both sides of the ball. Already a great alley-oop man and put-back artist. A good offensive rebounder. A great pick and roll man. A little further out, once he develops an inside game. A drop step. A baby-hook. A little shake. Man-oh-man. We've got a big-man on our hands that I wouldn't trade for any other in this league. A guy who I would only even consider trading for, what, a half-dozen other players in the league.

#2) Greg Monroe. Greg Monroe will never EVER EVER be anything close to what Tim Duncan was. But he could be what Tim Duncan is. The same Tim Duncan who was just the 2nd best player on a team that should've won an NBA championship. The BIGGEST difference between the two is that jump-shot from the elbow. THAT's what Monroe's gotta work on, more than anything else. He's already a high-IQ big from the high-post, and a great passer. He's already about what Duncan is (now) on defense and on the boards - and should get a little better in that regard. He's not quite the down-low scorer that Duncan is now, but he's close, and he should get better. Still a very, very young dude. Duncan played 4 years at Wake Forest, if you recall. We've definitely got something to build on up front.

#3) Trey Burke. Crossing the fingers. The closest thing there is in this draft to something we could develop into Tony Parker. The most important similarity between them is their ball-handling. Both have that uncanny ability to go anywhere they want to with the ball in their hands. The traffic doesn't matter. He's not the play-maker Parker is. He's not the passer. He doesn't have the IQ. But Tony didn't have that at his age either. It's something that can be developed to an extent. A great PG-coach like Mo is a good start. A great veteran backup (like Chauncey?) would help also. What he can do. He can hit outside shots. He can create, and hit, pull-ups. He can attack the basket. He does have all the same leadership intangibles. Trey Burke would be a serious, serious steal.
After the "Big-Three" what do we need?

Namely.. outside shooters who can stretch the floor on offense and guard their positions on defense. Singler and Middleton are poor-man's options of these. Jerebko is a poorer one. Knight, if he continues to improve his outside shooting, could be one as well (and a bonus in that he can run the point as well). There might be another one of these we can pick up in the second round. There's gotta be a way we can find another on the free agent market (or the trade market?).

And??

A third big-man would be good.

An anti-LeBron defender (for him, and those types).

A good perimeter (i.e. smaller guard) defender.

Like I said, a good veteran point to help mentor Burke (like Chauncey).